ERCOT’s 266 GW Surge, IREN’s $2.3B Raise, GPUs Eat ASICs, Whatsminer M70 Launch

About this episode

Ethan Vera discusses the challenges and developments in the ASIC and GPU mining markets, including IREN's funding and ERCOT's surge in interconnection requests.

Subscribe to the Blockspace newsletter for market-making news as it hits the wire! Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Ethan Vera, COO of Luxor, joins us as we dive into MicroBT’s Whatsminer M70 launching into a challenging ASIC market, IREN’s $2.3 billion convertible note offering, the precarious state of hashprice, Luxor’s new GPU hardware sales business, the staggering 270% leap in ERCOT interconnection requests, and the controversial Cat bitcoin fork proposal aimed at filtering ordinals / inscriptions. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com **Notes:** - Hash price is below $40 per second - Three negative difficulty adjustments - Ercot requests leaped 270% in 2025 - 73% of requests from data centers - IREN raised $2.3B in convertible notes - M70 efficiency: 12.5 J/TH 00:00 Start 02:35 Difficulty Report by Luxor 07:26 IREN note 10:44 M70 launch 20:02 Luxor launches GPU trading 27:12 ERCOT LL requests up 270% in 2025 34:10 Cry Corner: another filter fork proposal 👉CleanSpark, America's Bitcoin Miner! CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK) is a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. We own a portfolio of power, land, and…

People in this episode

Guest: Ethan Vera

Topics covered

• cryptocurrency
• blockchain
• ASIC mining
• GPU mining
• investment

Keywords

• MicroBT
• Whatsminer M70
• IREN $2.3 billion
• hashprice
• GPU hardware sales
• ERCOT interconnection requests
• Cat bitcoin fork proposal

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Whatsminer M70, Cat, M70, FBOX, Luxor GPU trading

Books & works: The Mining Pod

Places: America, the United States

More episodes of The Mining Pod | Blockspace Media

• Important: Where the show is moving next (Pausing The Mining Pod) · January 13, 2026 · 1 min
• Goodbye For Now! (We're moving feeds: click over to get the new show) · January 6, 2026 · 1 min
• TeraWulf’s $1.3B Raise, Riot’s $500 ATM, SMLR-ASST Merger, Beckham Bends Away from BTC · January 2, 2026 · 38 min
• The 2025 Hashies: Introducing Blockspace’s Annual Awards Show · December 30, 2025 · 38 min
• Bitcoin Mining Stock Vibe Rankings: 2025 Year-End Edition · December 26, 2025 · 1h 22m
• 2025: The Year of the Bitcoin ETF w/ Jean-Marie Mognetti · December 23, 2025 · 32 min